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Going in Reverse: the Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England

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Going in Reverse: the Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England © David Dodge, The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society © Stephen Demetriou TAR SANDS FACTS By June 2009, tar sands mining The Portland-Montreal pipeline flows underground beneath dozens of operations had destroyed an area of communities throughout New England and Central Canada. the Boreal forest that was one and a half times the size of Denver, Colorado. Going in Reverse: The Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England The oil industry is pursuing a plan to transport tar sands oil through some of the most important natural and cultural landscapes in Central Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Under the plan, Enbridge’s Line 9 and ExxonMobil’s Portland-Montreal pipeline would be reversed to send Canadian tar sands oil—some of the dirtiest oil on the planet—along an approximately 750-mile (1200 km) route. The pipeline would run east through Ontario and Quebec, and down to the New England seacoast, finally ending in Portland, Maine’s Casco Bay from where tar sands oil could be sent anywhere in the world for refining. Enbridge has taken steps to implement this plan by filing permit applications with Canada’s National Energy Board to reverse the flow of the pipeline and expand Line 9. Meanwhile, Portland-Montreal pipeline officials have been actively lobbying local government officials in New England to promote tar sands. But communities in New England, Ontario, and Quebec are fighting this risky tar sands pipeline and supporting clean energy solutions. The removal of tar sands oil from the ground is a destructive England do not need to bear the risks of tar sands pipelines so business. Large swaths of Alberta’s Boreal forest are destroyed that the oil industry can gain access to a coast for export. and a massive amount of carbon-polluting energy is used to produce the heavy oil. Because of the properties of tar sands A PIECEMEAL PIPELINE oil, its transport poses unique risks that aging conventional oil In November 2012—several months after receiving a permit to pipeline systems, such as Enbridge’s Line 9 and the Portland- reverse a section of its Line 9 pipeline—Enbridge applied for a Montreal pipeline, are not equipped to handle. A spill along National Energy Board permit to fully reverse and expand Line the pipeline corridor could harm rivers, lakes, and bays that 9, which would enable it to send tar sands oil all the way to are vital resources for millions of people in Canada and the Montreal, Quebec.1 Coupled with a reversal of the ExxonMobil United States, especially given that tar sands oil spills are more majority-owned Portland-Montreal pipeline, this would allow prevalent and potentially more damaging than conventional oil companies to pipe tar sands to Portland, Maine, and then oil spills. One thing is certain—Central Canada and New send it via tanker anywhere in the world for refining.2 For more information, please contact: Danielle Droitsch Natural Resources Defense Council (202) 513-6243 [email protected] switchboard.nrdc.org/ blogs/ddroitsch PAGE 1 | Going in Reverse: The Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England The Plan to Pump Tar Sands through Central Canada and New England Alberta Portland-Montreal Fort McMurray Pipeline Tar Sands Enbridge Line 9 Manitoba Saskatchewan Tar Sands Pipelines Hardisty Ontario Quebec Regina New Brunswick Montana North Montreal Maine Dakota Superior Portland Wisconsin Tar sands exports Minnesota New York Michigan New Hampshire Sarnia Vermont Pennsylvania Chicago By dividing up the project into smaller components, Destroying carbon-storing trees and wetlands on such a the pipeline companies have been attempting to shield large scale contributes to climate change. Carbon pollution themselves from the type of scrutiny faced by tar sands from tar sands extraction and upgrading are estimated to pipelines like TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Enbridge’s be three to four times higher per barrel than production of a Northern Gateway. The Portland Pipe Line Corporation, the barrel of conventional Canadian or U.S. crude oil. Tar sands company operating the Portland-Montreal pipeline in the extraction wipes out nesting habitat for millions of birds, United States, claims to not have a project planned, but at such as the evening grosbeak and olive-sided flycatcher. Tar the same time is actively lobbying government officials in sands mining operations require two to four barrels of fresh Washington, D.C., and New England on tar sands.3 In fact, water for every barrel of oil produced. In addition, tar sands the company has been actively pursuing permits needed to toxic-waste lakes (called tailings ponds) now cover 65 square reverse the flow of the pipeline, including the construction miles of Alberta, an area the size of Washington, D.C., and of a new pumping station.4 But communities in the pipeline significantly larger than Vancouver, British Columbia. states and provinces are not standing idly by. More than 50 towns in New England, Ontario, and Quebec have passed SAFETY RISKS FROM TAR SANDS resolutions or laws expressing concerns about the risks PIPELINES AND SPILLS associated with tar sands. Thousands of individuals have Bitumen, the toxic, almost-solid substance mined or drilled joined protests against the pipeline. And members of from Alberta’s tar sands, needs thinning to be transported in Congress, as well as senators, and governors have written to pipelines. After the oil-laden soil is removed, tar sands are the U.S. Secretary of State indicating that a reversal of the blended with natural gas liquids or other light, volatile pe- Portland-Montreal pipeline for sending tar sands to Portland, troleum products that contain benzene, toluene, and xylene. Maine, should require a new federal Presidential Permit and The result—diluted bitumen—is a viscous, heavy crude oil thorough environmental review.5 that at high pressures can be pumped through pipelines. Tar sands pipelines operate at higher temperatures than THE TROUBLE WITH TAR SANDS conventional pipelines and high temperature pipelines Tar sands in Alberta does not flow freely from the ground are more likely to spill due to external corrosion. Also, like the oil gushers portrayed in the movies. Instead, the diluted bitumen is 40 times to 70 times more viscous than extraction and processing of tar sands is one of the largest conventional crude oil.7 Pumping thick diluted bitumen at industrial operations in the world, relying on two processes— high pressure through pipelines generates significant friction, open-pit mining and in-situ drilling—that raze and fragment which in turn increases the pipe’s temperature. These higher massive swaths of the Boreal forest. These processes use temperatures can dramatically accelerate corrosive chemical enough energy to make tar sands oil production the fastest- reactions both inside and outside the pipe.8 growing contributor to Canada’s carbon pollution.6 Tar sands pipeline spills can and do occur, and there are The original TrailbreakerAt the proposal open-pit is mines,composed the ofBoreal the forest is cleared so indications that they are more prevalent than conventional Portland-Montrealthat Pipeline massive and excavators the Enbridge and Line trucks 9 can scoop up and oil spills. In recent years, the majority of tar sands oil not remove the tar sands. At the in-situ drilling operations, the refined in Alberta has been piped south to refineries in the Portland/Alberta Montreal Pipeline forest is fragmented and natural gas is burned to produce United States. A close look at pipeline incident data from Enbridge Linesteam, 9 which is injected via pipes into the ground to melt states in the northern Midwest, which have seen the greatest Enbridge Albertathe subterranean Clipper/Lakehead tar sands. System The oil gathers in wells and is volumes of tar sands diluted bitumen over the longest time pumped up to the surface for processing. period, is concerning. Between 2010 and 2012, pipelines in PAGE 2 | Going in Reverse: The Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England © Jesse Seymour-Perkins © NTSB © NRCM/Missing Lynx © Natural Resources Council of Maine A spill along the Exxon-Enbridge pipeline route could harm a number of important In 2010, a rupture in an Enbridge Inc. pipeline near Marshall, Michigan, resulted natural resources areas in Ontario, Quebec, and northern New England. in the largest tar sands spill in U.S. history. North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan spilled SPECIAL PLACES at RISK 3.6 times as much crude oil per mile of pipeline when Along the route of the Portland-Montreal pipeline and compared to the U.S. national average.9 Enbridge Line 9, a tar sands oil spill could put several special The damage can be more severe when an oil spill involves places at risk, including: tar sands-diluted bitumen. The natural gas condensate used n Grand River Basin, a designated Canadian Heritage to thin tar sands oil increases the chance of explosions if it River, recognized for its natural and cultural attributes of comes into contact with high heat, sparks, static electricity, national stature and as home to more than 215 species or lightning. Also, toxins that are present in diluted bitumen, designated as at-risk or endangered. such as benzene and n-hexane, can affect the human central nervous system. n Lake Ontario, the last in the Great Lakes chain and an Tar sands diluted bitumen spills can be especially important resource to the millions of Canadians and destructive to bodies of water, where protracted and costly Americans who live on or near its shores. cleanup efforts are required. If a diluted bitumen spill occurs n Saint Lawrence River, the most important river in by a river, pond, lake, bay, or sea, the diluents will evaporate, eastern Canada as it provides everything from half of leaving the heavier bitumen to sink.
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